A large amount of research work has been done to develop methods and apparatus for testing raw meat to determine its tenderness when cooked, and some of these methods have proved to be quite accurate. For example, good results have been obtained in the testing of raw meat according to the teachings of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,593,572, 3,602,038, 3,636,757 and 3,688,566, and there is disclosed particularly in U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,727 a portable probe device which is equipped with means for measuring the force necessary to make a prescribed insertion of the probes.
Although the testing of raw meat to determine its tenderness when cooked has been well developed, there are occasions in the meat packing industry when it would be desirable to test cooked meat for tenderness, but the methods heretofore available for this have been notably inaccurate and not of a dependable nature. In the past, such measurements have been shown to have poor correlation with shear tests made on meat from the same animal, and there has been a need for more reliable, non-destructive methods for determining the tenderness of cooked meat, particularly cooked beef.